The Picture House
by Muffins Planned
Summary: Bones find a picture of herself as a sixteen year old that forces her to remember what she had tried hard to forget. Bones foster care story
1. January 1992

___The picture had always been there (highest drawer, on the right side), under paper she never bothered to look at, she had never taken it out before. Until today. She was moving to a new appartment, and the drawer fell out and broke, and across the floor the picture flew. It landed under the table standing in the livingroom, and at first she didn't see it. But then she was faced with the picture, kneeling under the table, staring at her 16 year old self. _

___She had a black hat on, and her hair was dyed in a dark brown, almost black colour, her eyes looking at the camera slightly unfocused, but sparklingly grey. Under her eyes the faint hint of black circled, her eyes were squinted, and her mouth tight shut, as if trying to figure out if this camera was going to do her harm. _

___Picking up the photo, she looked at it, and wondered why it was under all those papers, hidden in a drawer somwhere. But then she saw the backround; a large green house, children of all ages stood outside in the big blurr that was behind her, and the house was dark inside. Her eyes seemed to darken in the picture, and there was no need to fight the memories- she had all ready been hit._

_**January 1992**_

_"_You have to understand that this child cannot take care of herself, she needs adult supervision!" an unfamilliar voice was heard on the other side of the brown doors. They didn't know that she could hear every word they said, that she knew even before they did that she was not going to stay here, she was going to be placed in a home, somewhere unfamiliar, and start all over again. And she didn't get why they didn't know that, it was uneventiable.

"But aren't there any relatives? It seems to rash to put her in those homes" an other voice, slightly more familiar said, it was the socialworker that came to her house that morning and told her that she couldn't stay anymore, to pack the things she wanted to keep, but keep it light. She wondered what was going to happen with the stuff she didn't take with her, like her mothers dolphines, or her fathers card collection, or her brothers guitar, or her stuffed animals.

"She doesn't have any, the closest relative she has right now is her brother, who abandoned her. And if you don't want to take her in, this is the only thing I can come up with" it was logical, that when one thing ended, everything about that ended, and you can't continue on an ending. So you need to start a new story, a blank page, something new had to begin, because if it didn't, didn't that mean you were dead?

"No, no, I can't take her in..." who said she wanted to live with that social worked that didn't seem to know if she should be soft or hard, there were moodwsings that seemed un-natural, and that creeped her out, not be able to predict the mood the social worked was in. And other than that, she just couldn't find anything in that person that appealed to her, she just saw a large, big chested woman in too tight clothes, and hair that was stuck in the seventies.

"Thought so..." there was a long pause, and she almost thought the door was going to open and they were going to take her to one of those homes she'd heard about, and leave her there. But the silence continued "We can place her in that group home down town until we can get in touch with a foster family" she didn't know there was a group home here, she had never thought of that this town contained children and adults that didn't have parents, being an ophran was alien to her until just a month ago. She was still waiting for her parents to come home and tell her that everything was ok- they were not dead.

"But that home is... that's the last resort, Jim, it's not a place to put her the first time" and the silence grew between where she was sitting on one side of the brown door, and where they sat, at a desk, one on each side facing each other, talking about how she was going to spend her years until she turned fifteen. "Isn't there someone that could take her in... just for a few days?" there was turning of some papers, some mumles. A woman sitting next to her was tapping her feet nervously up and down, staring at the opposit wall.

"Are you willing to take her in for a few days?" and the silence on the other side was deafening, the woman next to her continued to tap her feet. "Amy, you have to see that it's not that easy, you've been through this millions of times before, what's different this time?" the woman next to her started to tap her fingers, and she sent her a irritated glare.

"She's got no one..." and 'Amy trailed off, stoped, she wasn't much different to everyone else, she had never been, all that seperated her from the larger crowd was that she was quiet, not shy but quiet.

"Amy-" she didn't hear anymore, the corridor she was in woke to life when a door on the other end opened, and a small child flew out. The woman next to her ran up to the small child, yelling 'Samantha!' over and over again, and 'I love you', 'I miss you', the small child hung onto her mother crying like her mother had been dead and woken back up to life. She looked at the scene, fascinated by the love, and it seemed so out of place here, where children were taken away from their parents because that was the best choice, and like her, children and teenagers with no place to go other than the system.

The brown door opened, and out steped a short man and a tall woman, they looked at each other with a mutal and unspoken agreement and respect, then the social worker looked at her.

"C'mon Temperence" and like the dog she somehow became during these few days, she stood up, and followed the large woman a few feet behind, shuffeling her feet, just to demonstrate that this wasn't by choice, she was being draged out of here, not walking out on her own free will.

The car was new, bright red. She sat down in the front seat, if she sat down in the back seat she would look like one of those kids that were placed in fostercare after being to wild and the parents only encuruaged them, she was not one of those kids. She had never gone to a party, never had a boyfriend, her first kiss was a mistake that a boy made in fifth grade, and for that; she was definently not one of those kids.

The car ride was short, barely three minutes, and when the car slowed down infront of a large house, she understood that Amy was not taking her in, even for a few days. The house looked foreign, like from a sci-fi film, it was large, and even though the lawnd and house looked clean, it felt dirty, it was too clean. Pressing herself back into the carseat, she hoped that she was just stoping there to fix something with the car. Amy put a hand on her shoulder, and she looked up at her, begining her silently to drive away from here and not leave her, living with her would be worth not being here.

"This is only for a few days, Temperence, and then you will be placed in a nice family, but until then you have to stay here" looking down quickly as she took her hand off of her shoulder, she reached for the door handle, and opened the door to step out on the concrete sidewalk. Amy took out her dufflebag from the frontseat of the car, and handed her it like she was apologizing for something, and she took it silently, and looked back at the house and sighed.

The two of them walked up the path to the house, and Amy rang the bell, within seconds a forty year old woman had opened the door and pushed them inside.

"Welcome uhm... Tara-"

"Temperence" Amy interrupted the woman to correct her, and the woman looked at Amy strangely, before turning back to her.

"Temperence, I'm Mrs Jacobs, and you'll call me that, and nothing else. The rules are; no drugs, no fighting, no knives, no alcohol, no relationships, no movies with violence, lights out at ten pm, no noice what so ever after that, dinner is at six, come in later than ten past you won't get any food, breakfast is at seven school mornings, same rules there, you make your own lunch" Mrs Jacobs stopped to take a breathe "You'll sleep with a few other girls, and there are no boys alowed in that room, ok?" she nodded wide eyed, and looked at Amy next to her who had obvisouly heard this speach before. "Joseph!" she suddenly shouted as loudly as she could, and out of one of the corridors leading to the right a tall thirty year old man walked out, he had a long brown beard, and looked at her amused. "Show her to her room while I talk to Mrs Nelson"

Joseph noded and waved his arm for her to follow. He was quiet until they rounded the corner, and he laughed quitely, and looked at her.

"Don't believe that crap she just told you" she turned her head to look at him and frowned "No one follow the rules anyway" she looked down to the floor, and hoped that she wouldn't have to stay here long. "Ok, this is your room" he opened the door to a room in the middle of a hallway with the letter L marked on it. Inside the room there were six beds, four of them were occupied, with clothes lying all over the beds and floor, the other two were empty with only matdresses in them. "Make yourself comfortable, and I'll be right back with sheets, pillows and a cover" and without waiting for an answer, he disappeared down the hallway again, and she was left alone in the room.

Walking inside, she sat down on the bed furthest from the window that wasn't taken, and looked out. Outside it had started to snow, and from the house on the other side of the street a bunch of kids ran out. A daycare centre, she realized as she read the sign infront of the house. They'd put a daycare just by a fostercare group home? Letting out a long breath as she looked around the room one more time, she noticed that there were no pictures, random nick-nacks lying around, there were just jeans and tops everywhere, and that was it.

A girl her age or a year older walked into the room with a boy who looked a little bit older than her, but she wasn't sure, they looked at her like she had invaded their space- and maybe unkowingly she had by just sitting there, waiting for Joseph to return.

"I wouldn't take that bed if I were you" the girl said, looking at the bed with a face that mirrored disgust, and she looked down at the bed and wondered what was wrong with it. "Take that one" she pointed at the bed under the window "The last girl had that bed, and she said it was the best one in this room" confused, she looked at the bed closest to the window.

"I'm fine with this bed, thank you" she squeezed the madtress as she looked between the two of them.

"You should probably leave if you don't want to watch like some pervert or something" as if she had been burned she stood up, realizing what they meant, and she left the room.

She couldn't wait until she turned eighteen.


	2. August 1992

******August- September 1992**

She was back again at the group home. It was inevitable, she knew all along that she was coming back, that the house she had been placed in would be temporary, that the pictures on the walls would never again be a picture of her, that she would just be one girl in a crowd, no one would really remember her since she moved around so often. She had already been placed in four homes, the first one she managed to stay with in tree month, they were nice people, and had two kids of their own who were her own age, a boy and a girl- but they didn't like her, apparently they had something against people smarter than them.

After three months she had been moved to an other family, a woman who had two other foster children there, they hated her too, shut her out, and the woman had enough of her, she wanted a kid that could socialize a bit better, not just sit in her room and read, that was the reason after all she had decided to take in foster kids- not at all for the money or the fact that she was all alone, not at all.

The next two homes she just stayed three weeks and then one week, then she was back here, seven months after she'd left in February. Inevitable, as said.

She had a new room, and new room-mates, most of the kids were the same, and they greeted her with a 'I knew you'd be back' ten minutes after she stepped into the place once again. She had waited for this day, dreaded the day the car would stop in front of the building, and let her off at the place she'd spent her first month in foster care. That month she had learned a lot of things, one of them being that the background is a good place to be in when you don't want to get into trouble, as soon as something makes you stand out, everyone's got an opinion.

Dropping her bag in front of the only empty bed in the room, she looked around, and let out a small laugh. Nothing really changes. But it was a strange feeling that started to grow in the pit of her stomach, a feeling she hadn't felt in a while. She felt at home here, or it was just the first familiar place she'd been in the past months, the first time she'd returned, and it felt nice actually; having a place to return to.

She left the room to walk to the living room, the living room was a large room with four couches along the walls, three arm chairs, a small tv in one corner, a radio and three tables with chairs standing all around, two shelves with cards, books and old CD's in them, the room was painted white, and the small windows made it look like a prison. But it was the one place in the house that made it resemble a home.

A guy named Adam was sitting in one of the couches half asleep, looking over at two girls trying to play some cards when he noticed her walk into the room.

"Tempe's back!" he suddenly yelled in a cheery tone, and everyone in the room stopped what they were doing and looked at her standing in the doorway. Adam then laughed, an amused laugh that almost sounded cruel "Welcome back Tempe" she hated when he called her Tempe, she sounded like a kid, which she was not, absolutely not, not anymore. A year ago she was a kid, unaware of what the world would do to her only months later, now she knew, nothing could be trusted.

"Great!" someone exclaimed sarcastically, and everyone went back to what they were doing, and even though she was left out, sitting down on one of the couches; she felt at home, and that was happiness, nothing could take that away from her.

-

It went a week, two weeks, and she started to find her place there, they were more accepting the second time around, she wasn't entirely knew this time, now they knew who she was from the start. She started to follow them out when they went to smoke, sitting on the steps looking at the smoke coming out of their mouths like a train, then the cigarettes brought back to their mouths, over and over again, a ritual.

She sat on the same stone step, it didn't matter if it was raining or if the sun was shining, every day they sat outside on the steps, smoke pouring out of their mouths while watching the kids playing on the other side of the street. And soon she was offered a cigarette herself, and she sat on the step with them, and somehow she knew that this was the best it was going to be, sitting there.

Her birthday passed without anyone noticing, and it was the best that way, not to be reminded that the year before she had woken up to her parents and brother singing 'happy birthday' and bringing breakfast in bed. No it was better to look herself in the mirror and say; 'one year, not so bad', even though she didn't really know what she meant with those words.

But with her birthday over, she knew that they would place her in a home again, it was logical, this home was just temporary, why she didn't know, she'd rather stay in the group home lead by a crazy woman rather then being moved from place to place and not knowing what was going to meet her. The group home was so much better.

The day after her birthday she was alone in her room, after dinner she had suddenly felt really tired, and decided to go back to her room and sleep while the others went out to whatever party they were going to that weekend, but apparently someone hadn't left she realized as her door flew open, and then closed, soon someone was lying next to her.

"Hey Tempe..." she heard some guy say as he put a hand on her waist, she turned around to see who it was and looked straight into a pair of green eyes.

"Mike... what are you doing here?" she wondered groggily.

"Just visiting my favourite girl" he whispered, and leaned forwards to kiss her, she pulled back slightly.

"Not now Mike, I'm tired" she said pushing him away.

"So? You could just lay there, and I'll do all the job" she frowned and started to sit up, but everything started to spin, and she grabbed onto his arm to steady herself as she laid back down again, this time she didn't see him lean forwards, suddenly his mouth was on hers and she let out a protest.

"Stop it Mike" she managed to get out when his lips left hers, and he looked at her with almost black eyes. He didn't budge, and he started to work with the buttons on her blouse, she grabbed his hands and pushed them away, struggling to get loose from his grip.

"You're only making it worse, honey"

Luckily she blacked out just a minute later, or the rest is something her mind wouldn't allow her to remember

-

When she woke up she had her pyjamas on, and she was lying under her cover. Her head was oddly calm, and an eerie feeling passed through her body. She blinked and looked around the room, the other three girls were sleeping in their beds, and outside the moon was shining. Her body ached, and for a few moments she wondered about the cause, then she remembered, and didn't remember. It was as if her mind had stopped working at some point, or she had blacked out.

She sat up and looked around the room. Of course the one place she felt at home in would fail her, how could she have thought anything else?


	3. November 1992

Hello, I'm back, remember me? So now we're on the month I was born! Oh yes, long time ago (I'm so young xD). I hope to be able to post again this week put my memory and the pile of homework is stopping me- graduation time soon, y'know! So hope you'll like this and if you get throught it; be kind and drop a line or two of what you think about it?

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******November 1992**

Watching the snow fall down outside the window, she sighed and pushed herself up and out of the wooden and old bed. The second her feet landed on the floor, she let out a involuntary shreik, and fell back on the bed again. The floor was ice cold, and she would not put her feet back on the ground until her heart had calmed down to a normal rythm. She looked towards the door, counting seconds, afraid that the people she lived with at the moment would get mad and trow a fit at her. If they trew a fit she would get trown out of here and either placed in a new home or get sent back to the group home- she dreeded the day she would get back to the group home.

When a minute had gone she slowly put her feet on the ground, bracing herself for the cold floor. This time she bit her lip and carefully walking over to the small chest of drawers that had been designed to her the month before when she arrived there. She grabbed the first best thing she could find, a pair of jeans and a olive green t-shirt and trew it quickly, then trowing on an over sized hood, socks that didn't macth what she was wearing, and then her shoes.

Hurrying down from the addict she had been given to sleep in and then down into the hallway, the couple she stayed with was fighting again, and she walked quietly into the kitchen to grab a sandwhich. Susan and George were shouting at the top of their lungs, Susan had appearently broke the heater when she went out to smoke that night and didn't bother to tell George when she got in, even though George knew how mad he would've been if she had woken him up he was mad because she didn't.

She took one of the breadslices quickly, hoping she would get out of the way before it turned on her.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" George suddenly yelled, and she froze, and looked at him like a dear caught in the headlights. "Who said you could eat?" he put his face just an inch away from her face, staring into her eyes. His pupils were dialated, and his breathe was hot against her cheek "You're just a spoiled little kid" he spat in her face, she screwed her eyes shut when something wet landed on her cheek. She didn't want to think about that, it always happened at some point during the day, no matter what she did he spat in her face. She wondered if he got off on it.

"Leave the girl alone George! She's not worth it" Susan called from behind him while crossing her arms, appearently she was a bit pissed that he just stopped the argument.

"She needs to know comon sense, can't let her out of the world without teaching her that. We have responsibility of her now" he spoke in a low tone, his eyes squinting and his hand was twitching.

"I was just going to eat something before school" she stated, confused to why this was angering him. He stepped closer to her, pushing her up against the counter, she could feel his breathing against her chest, and she tried to get away by pushing further into the counter. "What, what are you doing?" she asked with a quivering voice, feeling his hands sneek around her wrists, holding them so hard she knew they were going to bruise. "Ah, ah, let go please" she pleaded. For a moment she saw Mike before her instead of George, but then Georgie was back, and she didn't know which was worse.

"Please" she whispered against his cheek, feeling herself collapse against his chest as she gave up, she wouldn't be able to fight him.

It was easier to zoom out when he threw her on the floor, picked her up again and shook her. She focused on a spot on the wall, the ugly clock, everything but him, not even when he put his face in hers did she look him in the eyes, she wouldn't give him that pleasure.

She hated him more for the fact that he would send her back to that foster home. But maybe Mike had turned eighteen, or maybe just maybe they'd caught him steeling or something and he was in jail. Maybe. It was better to think of the positive rather than the negative.

She blacked out at some point and when she woke up she was at the hospital. She blinked a few times at the brightness of the room, then when her eyes focused she saw someone sitting nex to her, Amy Nelson the socialworker. She let out a long sigh and shook her head, she knew she would take her back to that home.

"Where am I going now?" she asked, and her voice was thick and she hated when it was that thick. She realized that she couldn't see on her left eye; it was probably too swolen.

"We think that maybe the group home is going to be the best place for you at the moment" Mrs Nelson answered wearily.

"You think?" she said humorlessly, refusing to look at the socialworker.

"There has to be a trial for this, Temperence, we can't let this man go unpunished for almost... killing you" there was a disgusted sound in her voice as she told her this. "And it's probably best for you if you have a... permanent place to stay in, at least during the course of the trial" she blinked away her tears when she was done.

"What if I don't want to go back there?" she asked challengingly, raising her eyebrows and crossing her arms across her chest, wincing from the pain it caused her.

"You're sixteen Temperence, you have to" her voice was dragged out and tired, it had obviously been a long day for her.

"Don't I have any rights, anything?" she asked again, she turned her head slowly and looked at Amy, the woman that was growing sideways. She filled up the entire chair with her large body.

"Temperence, you've been beaten by a man that was supposed to protect you and care for you, been unconscious for a whole day... we can't put you in another family when you are in this situation" Amy explained, and was just about to continue when a doctor stepped into the room.

"Ms Brennan, I need to talk to you for a few minutes" he looked at Amy pointedly and she stood up and left the room slowly. "How are you feeling?" he asked seriously, standing by the foot of her bed.

"Like I've been beaten by a guy twice my size" she said matter of factly. Why beat around the bush? She knew what had happened, she was there after all.

"Ms. Brennan, you took a serious blow to your head and a couple of kicks to your stomach" he paused and shifted his feet "And when we did an ultrasound to look for internal bleeding we discovered that you have miscarried-"

"What?" she interupted him, shocked.

"You miscarried-"

"I was pregnant?" she asked surprised, feeling her breathing hitch in her throat.

"You didn't know?" he was surprised this time, and she shook her head, confirming his suspicion.

"I never thought I could..." she was at a loss of words. Now after it seemed obvious, but then, she had been too busy trying to cope with everything else. She first thought she felt sad about it, but then she realized that she was relieved. She was sixteen years old, in fostercare, the world was far from ideal to bring a child into.

"You are still capable of having children, so this haven't affected your body on a long-term" she nodded. "You have a concussion, a few broken ribs, but other than bruises there is nothing else that calls for immediate attention. We will release you in a few days"

"Ok" she confirmed that she'd heard what he'd said, but he could hear her mind was somewhere else. That feeling of relief was strange for some reason, like she had actually been worried , like she had thought about it for weeks and now finally it was over. It scared her how close she was since she did not have any money to pay for an abortion. The money she had was locked away in a bank until she turned eighteen, and then it would be used for her education, not raising a child.

Amy slipped inside once again, figuring that their conversation was not over yet. She sat down and looked at the young child staring straight forward with furrowed eyebrows.

"Are there any news of my parents?" she asked, every time she met Amy she asked this. A part of her hoped that her parents weren't dead and they would come home soon and bring her back home and tell Russ that he shouldn't have left her and he would say how sorry he was for leaving her. Really all she did want from Russ was an apology for making her go through this. In an ideal world Russ could take care of her, but lately she's seen how far from reality that is.

"No, I'm sorry" and she got the same answer she's gotten the past five months. First there were clues, they were so sure they'd find them. But then the case started to go cold.

She felt her stomach cramp, and she was torn from her thoughts. She took a deep breathe and willed the pain away. Sixteen and was miscarrying a child, her own child, and she wasn't even sorry.

"Are you all right?" Amy asked her, sitting at the edge of her chair, resting her chubby hands on top of the white sheets.

"I'm fine" she snapped. She did not want people to care for her, that makes her trust them and later cling on to them. It makes it harder when they leave. It's easier to keep everyone at a distance.

"When they release you on Friday I'm the one who's coming to pick you up, and I'll drive you to the home where all your clothes are for now." she informed her, and waited for some kind of confirmation, but she closed her eyes and refused to acknowledge her. She sighed "I'll see you on Friday then, Temperence" and with that she hung her bag on her shoulder and stood up, leaving her alone.

It's not fair, she thought. Nothing is fair.


	4. December 1992

I'm getting school work done, and I only have a few things left to do! Next update might happen on Sunday, could happen tomorrow, or sometime next week. You never know with me, but it won't be too long! I plan to have all chapters up by 12th

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**December 1992**

It pained her, almost, seeing the tree that was decorated with minimal lights, no breakable ornaments, nothing that could be used as a weapon. Everything could really, but they wanted them to have some sort of normalcy. The tree itself was this awful scrawny thing that was probably one of the cheapest. If anything it reminded them of what the didn't have, and made the season worse than it had to be.

More suicides are committed during the holidays than at any other points during the year. A season that was supposed to bring so much happiness brought just as much sadness.

For Temperence it wasn't the fact that her family was gone that made her sad, or the fact that she miscarried only a month before; it was because it was soon a year ago her parents went missing. Soon a year ago since that night the sat down in that car and backed out of the driveway and never returned. December 18th.

She watched the youths where she now called "home" planned how they would be able to sneek out during Christmas eve and do something more fun than singing psalms and Christmas carols. And then the fateful New Years Eve, which she could only imagine how pathetic that would be. 1993, it would just be another year, nothing good could happen during that year. 1994 would be good, then she was turning eighteen and she would leave this all behind. For now she was sixteen.

She looked down and read the text once again. Grey's Anatomy, she had borrowed it at the library the previous week stating that it was for a school project. Everyone seemed to know she was a fosterkid and was reluctant to loan her books, even though she had borrowed plenty and given them all back in excellent condition.

It interested her, the human body and everything it did. When she was younger and walked through museums she would look up at the huge dinosaurs and the massive bones wondering how they could show what kind of animal it was, how old it was, everything. And also _how _they knew exactly how to put every bone in the right place so everyone could see this massive creature. With age it made more sense, and she would go from time to time and sit in front of the massive animal and look through books she had bought or borrowed, comparing them to the animal before her. She found a fault one, and reported it, but no one wanted to listen to a bossy twelve year old. Two years later she saw that the fault had been corrected.

Her arm was in a cast, preventing her from many activities, and one of them was reading. The cast prevented her fingers from holding the book in a comfortable way, and she couldn't bend her wrist, or stretch her arm out, so she had to do it sitting, with the book resting in her lap. She promised herself that when she got this cast up she would go job hunting and when she got her first pay check she would spend it on self-defence classes. She was not letting herself get beat up again.

An ornament fell down as someone was pushed playfully into the tree, but it didn't break- to most people's dismay. She heard someone mutter that they should get rid of the tree tonight, it was only in the way. And it was in the way since it was situated in the middle of the not so big room, taking up most of the space and preventing people from sitting at three tables that where standing around the tree.

Last Christmas they also had a decorated tree by now. She had broken one of the ornaments, and had quickly started to apologizing, it was her mother's favourite one. But her mom wasn't angry with her, wasn't even sad that the ball with a silver dolphin was broken. She just quietly helped her pick the pieces of glass saying it was bound to happen at some point, and then she kissed her at the top of her head, and then her forehead. _"Don't worry about it Tempe, it's ok"_ it confused her how she could almost hear her mother's words a year later, and feel her lips touching her forehead like she was sitting right next to her pretending that she was interested in what she was reading.

Her mother was a heart-woman, her father had said that once, and knowing his daughter was slow to catch on things that did not directly make sense, he explained that she was all emotions and perceiving things that was going to happen in a way that would never make sense to her. Her mother was a woman with temper, but she was smart in a way that could get her many things in life, but she didn't do anything. She just lived her normal suburb wife with a husband that was always smiling and was at times a bit emotionally unstable. She didn't understand the fact that her mother was a heart-woman, since her family always had a hard time with the emotion love.

It was something her father had said, and it was now she was starting to realize that her father could be wrong, maybe her mother was just a woman. Her father was just another man, and her mother just another woman in the world, another statistic of missing people that'll probably never be found. She hated to think it but she was stuck here, an orphan, also just another statistic.

She turned a page in the book and just stared at the text. Her parents were missing and what was she doing, her brother left her, she was raped, she was beaten half to death, she was pregnant but miscarried, she was sitting in a fostercare group home that she wanted away from, and what was she doing? Reading a book about how the body functioned!

She was angry with herself for doing nothing, she had just followed orders blindly and thinking they were going to lead her on the right path. She shut the book loudly, but no one noticed, she stood up and hurried out of the room. The thing about sharing room with three other girls was that they never got to be alone, when they wanted to cry they had to hold it in because no one wanted to hear crying, it reminded people of too much.

She walked to her room and sat down on her bed, all she wanted to do was cry, but she found that she had no tears left.


	5. March 1993

I'm sorry! On Sunday I was too tired to think straight and yesterday I was trying to get most of my school work done so... this was forgotten. But here it is! The next chapter will be the last one... But hopefully I'll be done with the sequel soon (I'm having a writers block) and I'll put that up! ) Have a nice day!

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******March 1993**

His name was Gregory Vegas, and he would become her first boyfriend in only a weeks time. He stepped into the group home the 3rd of Mars and no one but her looked at him. It was nothing special about him, nothing at all. He wore glasses, and the same clothes as everyone else did. He had dreadlocks that fell in his face, his hair wasn't that long, not short either. He wasn't good looking or even bad, not at all. He was so normal that she wanted to cry out loud at the sight. Normalcy.

She studied him as he walked along the walls of the room, inspecting the people that it contained, probably trying to figure out where he'd fit in. No where, she should've told him, because no one here fit in. It was like a puzzle but none of the pieces fit, so they had to cut them with scissors, but they still didn't, the colors were mismatched, the patterns, everything.

She bit the inside of her lip and tried to think of what he was thinking, but she couldn't. He spotted her looking at him when he had reached the opposite wall, he stopped and challenged her; who would look away first. They stayed like that for a long time, minutes, maybe an hour, they didn't have anything better to do and she didn't work that day. Then he suddenly started moving, he pushed away from the wall and walked right across the room, over the carpet that covered the black wood from the Christmas tree that started to burn two days before Christmas, and then he stood in front of her, looking down at her where she sat.

"Greg" he said extending his hand, she simply looked at it and then up at him.

"I don't shake hands" she informed him.

"What are you, eight?" he rolled her eyes and his hand fell back to his sides.

"No, I'm sixteen" she frowned, she knew she didn't look eight. He laughed first, but then saw that she was serious he simply smiled.

"So what's your name?" he asked kindly.

"Temperence" he raised his eyebrows showing he was impressed.

"Cool name" she smiled, and he took it as an invite to sit down. And they fell into a comfortable silence. Tempe and Greg watching the world from their own little world.


	6. June 1993

So here is the last part... I should've posted this yesterday but I was so tired because on Thursday was prom, and that meant staying up late + yesterday was Sweden's national holiday. So, well... I'm feeling talkative so I should stop this before I write too much. I hope you've enjoyed this story and look out for the sequel that will be posted sometime during this summer, so far it's called "Four Brick Walls", and I've actually started it already! xD So... Bye for now!

* * *

******J****une 1993**

She sat in the front yard, looking at Greg playing around with his camera. He had bought it the same day he'd turned eighteen and was now trying to figure out how to take the best shots. She looked at the daycare across the street and watched the children play. She hated the fact that they too would grow up and find that the world wasn't the magical one they created in their minds as toddlers.

She heard the cheers, the laughter, the cries and the mindless chatter from where she was sitting on the curb across the street. Even though it made her sad, she could help but smile as a three year old stood on the other side of the fence looking at the two of them, his mouth was hanging open as he himself half hung on the fence. In ten years time that child would be thirteen and probably already seen enough to be robbed his innocence.

She looked over at Greg as he frowned.

"Where are you going now?" she asked, leaning back and resting on her elbows.

"Don't know, need to get a job... my uncle has finally realized that I'm worth something and has offered a job for me" she nodded and looked back at the small boy.

"Where...?" he shrugged.

"Somewhere in Texas" he replied shortly, and she sat up.

"So when are you leaving?" he looked her in the eyes and kissed her quickly on the lips. She sighed. This was their relationship, they hardly ever talked, she knew nothing about him. Maybe that was the best because the idea of him leaving didn't hurt so much

The months had passed quickly, and the summer heat had arrived shortly. Nothing was new to her anymore, or so it felt, so she wasn't as scared as before. In January she took her first self-defence classes, and she'd loved it, and when the course ended she singed up for karate and when she had more money she would sign up for judo too. She was stronger now, she didn't feel the need to cry so much anymore, she could survive alone, she had done for so long. It was comforting knowing that.

"I want to take a picture of you" he said suddenly, the words were slightly muffled since he had a cigarette in his mouth. He picked up the camera and quickly snapped a shot before she even had anytime to react. She frowned and shook her head.

There were many things in life that confused her, but she was content knowing what she did. Maybe she was awkward and all, but being social didn't really appeal to her. Once again she looked at the small children that ran around on the grass across the street. She had lived in seven different homes the past year, each name carved into her left foot shoe, reminding her of where she had been and who had taken care of her. There were so many names, they built up and was then forgotten, and she wasn't sure if she wanted to forget. This was forming her to become a person that wouldn't get hurt, wouldn't need to be taken care of. Foster care had taught her to take care of herself.

She was her own caretaker, she might as well have been eighteen, since she was already one in a crowd of many. It was something that you realize when you do something new, somewhere you haven't been before, and you realize that the world has never revolved around you, that these people have always existed without her knowing. It was strange thinking of all the people in the world, and the fact that they were thinking creatures too. Fascinating.

She turned to look at Greg as he put his cigarette out. She hated it when he smoked because when he kissed her the taste was awful.

"Y'know? I'm glad I met you Tepp" he stated, and she looked up at him, finding him watching her. She waited for him to continue, the words hanging in the air. She wanted to ask why he was glad about it, but it felt like a sad question. She nodded slowly after a while.

"Temperence! Mr J just called, he wants to talk to you" a girl shouted from the door, and she groaned quietly. Mr J, or Mr Jenkins which was his actual name, was her lawyer. He was free spoken and had an open body language, constantly waving his arms when proving his point- except in court, there he was put together and slightly up tight. He was good, but not too good.

She stood up and walked quickly inside. It was dark inside, and after being in the sun for so long it felt even darker as she made her way to the phone.

She picked up the plastic device and curtly said hello.

It had gone a long time since she was assaulted, and she still had nightmares about it, no mater how much she told herself it was over and done with. The rape was another thing that was constantly in the back of her mind, waiting for a moment of weakness to come and bring her tumbling down. Mike was gone when she return, had gone to prison for sexual assault and then raping another girl. She often wondered if she could've stopped it by reporting her rape, but she doubted it since she didn't think anyone would listen to a foster kid.

He told her that they needed her to testify one last time before the verdict, it was important so that George would get the sentence he deserved. But she couldn't. The last time she had felt so lost, so out of place, she felt that they violated her, told her that she had herself to blame for taking that piece of bread without anyone saying she could. She felt like a criminal, she didn't want to feel that again.

She hung up the phone and walked to the door, looking at Greg sitting on the curb. She didn't feel anything for him, and maybe that was good. When a girl walked by she didn't even feel jealous as he sized her up and down. No, she was comfortable with him, that was all. It didn't hurt thinking about his departure, because this time she hadn't allowed herself to get attached.

In the future she even doubted she would remember him, her first boyfriend. She knew this whole time would be filled with fuzzy memories, because that's what the brain does, deletes sad memories, mix them together and make them impossible to sort out. It's a defence mechanism, to keep us living and happy. But the feelings can't be erased, and that would become the thing that will prevent her from becoming what society expects her to be. There were too many bumps and she had to fall at some point, she was only waiting for the time to get pulled up.

She wouldn't have continued going if she knew it was going to take 13 years for that to happen.

* * *

**2008**

_She sat down on her couch, in her own apartment. She was older now, wiser, happier maybe. That photo was so simple yet held so many secrets, she couldn't believe that it was her. Behind the camera was Greg, and she remembered that day, it was the last day she saw him, three weeks later she found that picture on her pillow. Maybe he had a copy or he didn't want to remember her, but now she had the only photo of her during the time she was in foster care._

_32 years felt like so much when she saw herself as 16. Her world had been turned upside down so many times that she didn't know which way was up and down, she still didn't. The world hadn't got any less cruel as the years went by, if not more, and she got tougher, thick skinned as she heard Booth say once._

_She had friends now, people who cared and called her when they knew something was up, people who understood that she didn't like Christmas and why. The why was important. She put the photo down onto the coffee table, she didn't need to run from her past anymore, she had people to bring her up when she was down._


End file.
